Last weekend “senior prom” took on a new meaning in Los Angeles, as the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center held a prom especially for LGBT senior citizens, who wouldn’t have been able to take a same-sex date to their high school proms.

“For many, the senior citizen prom was the one they couldn’t have when they were younger,” reports the Los Angeles Times.

One of those people was 88-year-old Robert Clement, who, for his school prom in Pennsylvania in 1942, bought a corsage that he gave to a staffer who organized the event, as he “didn’t have anyone else to give it to,” the Times reports.

“Proms are a rite of passage,” Clement told the paper. “A heterosexual rite of passage. ... But it wasn’t mine.” Clement didn’t have a date for the Gay and Lesbian Center event, as his longtime partner died 10 years ago, but he enjoyed spending time with friends there.

“It was like living in old times with old friends,” he said. “The whole place just came together.”

The event included a catered meal, the crowning of a king and queen, and dancing, with a Lucille Ball impersonator leading a conga line to the dance floor.